1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates in general to the field of information handling system peripherals, and more particularly to a system and method for peripheral communication with an information handling system management.
2. Description of the Related Art
As the value and use of information continues to increase, individuals and businesses seek additional ways to process and store information. One option available to users is information handling systems. An information handling system generally processes, compiles, stores, and/or communicates information or data for business, personal, or other purposes thereby allowing users to take advantage of the value of the information. Because technology and information handling needs and requirements vary between different users or applications, information handling systems may also vary regarding what information is handled, how the information is handled, how much information is processed, stored, or communicated, and how quickly and efficiently the information may be processed, stored, or communicated. The variations in information handling systems allow for information handling systems to be general or configured for a specific user or specific use such as financial transaction processing, airline reservations, enterprise data storage, or global communications. In addition, information handling systems may include a variety of hardware and software components that may be configured to process, store, and communicate information and may include one or more computer systems, data storage systems, and networking systems.
Information handling systems typically communicate with peripheral devices, such as displays, cameras and microphones, through standardized interfaces. The use of standardized interfaces allows a variety of manufacturers to provide peripherals for a variety of information handling system platforms. For example, the VGA interface defined cable connections to communicate a video signal from an information handling system to a display. As another example, the USB interface defines a serial cable connection that communicates information between an information handling system and a variety of types of devices. One difficulty with standardized interfaces is that, as information handling system components operate at greater speeds to communicate greater amounts of information, the standardized connections eventually tend to provide insufficient bandwidth. In response, information handling system and peripheral manufacturers periodically coordinate the development of more advanced standards that will meet increasing bandwidth demands. For instance, the VESA standards group has recently introduced the VESA DisplayPort 1.0 specification. DisplayPort is a multi-laned two-way serial interface for connecting a source device, such as on an information handling system that generates a video signal, with a sink device, such as a display that presents the video signal. The DisplayPort interface has a one-way high speed link with one to four lanes that transmits video pixel and audio sample information to the display in a micro-packet architecture and a separate bi-directional auxiliary link with a single lane that transmits control information to and from the display also in a micro-packet architecture. The control information allows an end user to manage display operations, such as by obtaining EDID information, with the information handling system.
Although standardized interfaces improve information handling system user options for the selection of peripheral devices, the wide variety and large number of available peripherals often lead to end user confusion. For example, video conferencing through information handling systems has been available for some time, however, technical barriers due to network bandwidth, audiovisual synchronization, software support and device complexity have held back mainstream adoption of video conferencing. Although many of these difficulties have been addressed in high speed networking standards that now include quality of service provisions and in operating system updates that feature support for real-time communication, device complexity remains pervasive at least in part due to the connectivity requirements of information handling systems. For instance, videoconferencing with an information handling system typically requires a display, a camera, a microphone, speakers, and a network connection, such as through a modem or a local area network. Each peripheral device connection adds to system complexity, increases clutter around the system with each separate cable and tends to discourage end users from adopting videoconferencing.